Hanna sets records in Orange

Olympian and World Equestrian Games (WEG) representative Mary Hanna has continued her record breaking form, beating her previous personal best and setting an Australian record in the Grand Prix Freestyle at the Birds Equisports Dressage with Altitude Festival in Orange at the weekend.

Hanna and her 14 year old gelding Umbro received a score of 75.950%, eclipsing the previous Australian best score of 75.275% posted by Ricky MacMillan and Crisp in 2004.  

The four time Olympian’s win in Saturday’s Freestyle follows her performance with Umbro in Friday’s Grand Prix, where the pair was awarded a score of 72.520% - the highest Grand Prix score by an Australian rider in Australia. 

“Umbro was sensational,” said an estatic Hanna on her Facebook page.

“Super happy with his win in the GP Kur at the Orange CDI. A record score in Australia 75.95% with over 77% from the European judges.

“I could not be more happy and so proud of my beautiful Umbro,” she said.

It was also a successful event for Maree Tomkinson and her 2014 World Equestrian Games team mount Diamantina 4 with the pair posting personal best (PB) scores in both the Grand Prix and GP Freestyle.

Tomkinson and Diamantina were second in the Grand Prix with a score of 69.940% and second in the Freestyle with a score of 72.025%.

“Diamantina was back to her wonderful self, PB's for us in both tests.

“(We’re) slowly crawling our way up that ladder. The judges getting more confident in us and mostly giving better scores. 76% from the Dutch judge was super for our confidence, a few more of them and Rio might start looking like a possibility.”

Caroline Wagner and Tango V scored 70.500% and finished third followed by Heath Ryan and Regardez Moi who were fourth, receiving 70.450%.

Visit the Birds Equisports Dressage with Altitude CDI website for more information and full results from the event.